The case of the missing students

Ravi's transition from a regular school to a coaching institute in Delhi highlights the rise of 'dummy schools' in India.

Until two years ago, Ravi’s days in Jharkhand were filled with playing with friends, singing and piano practice with his bandmates for competitions, and working on school projects. These activities disappeared from his daily routine when he moved to Delhi and enrolled in a coaching institute. Now in Class 12, Ravi (name changed upon request), says, “I hardly move outside this building.” He lives and attends coaching classes within, barely stepping out. “Here, there are no friends; only competitors.”

Ravi doesn’t go to school any more. Instead, his attendance is marked in a school in west Delhi’s Janakpuri that his coaching centre has a tie-up with. Boards to which schools are affiliated to across India have a compulsory 75% attendance clause for every child. Only if a student attends at least three-fourth of the classes through the year, can they sit for the board examinations. For Ravi and other students like him, these classes are a ‘waste of time’ because their focus is on entrance exams to colleges.

Earlier this month, the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE), after a surprise inspection on 27 schools, disaffiliated 21, of which 16 are in Delhi. Six were downgraded from senior secondary to secondary schools, after conducting a series of surprise inspections. Earlier in 2024, up to 20 schools were disaffiliated across the country, with five from Delhi. There are more than 29,000 schools affiliated to the CBSE that oversees pedagogy in India.

As Ravi steps out from his coaching institute, a four-floor building located in a tony south Delhi colony, he says that while it is not as much fun, there is the hope that it will be worth it. “I cannot think of anything I want to do more than become a doctor and save people’s lives.”

Days go by without students looking away from books, and every student inside the institute studies for at least 10 hours a day. Ravi feels once he gets admission in a top medical college, he will return to his old life.

Another student taking a walk in the park nearby, wearing a T-shirt with the name of the coaching institute, says, “When I joined here, I was told I did not have to attend regular classes in school. They told us about the schools they are linked to. All we have to do is pay the school fees and then go to school for exams.”

Delhi’s disaffiliated schools, concentrated in areas of northwest Delhi such as Narela and Nangloi, continue to have painted boards that say, ‘Affiliated to CBSE’. A student reaches Khemo Devi Public School, Narela, on his scooter, wearing a cap with the name of his coaching institution printed on it. He is here to complete the “formalities”. Most students and parents are oblivious to the recent action against the school.